Second Life教育应用的现状、问题与趋势

Current Status, Problems, and Trends of Educational Applications of Second Life

当前，以Second Life为代表的三维虚拟世界在教育领域的应用尝试愈来愈广泛，显示出重要的特定价值。本文采用文献调研的方法对Second Life教育应用的现状进行了归纳与梳理，分析了Second Life应用于教育实践所面临的问题，指出其教育应用的未来发展趋向。Second life的教育应用实践表现出如下特点：学科教学种类呈现多样性，广泛应用于语言、天文、医学、商业、艺术设计、历史等学科的教学；教学实践形式呈现多元化，包括虚拟课堂、远程教学、教学实验、技能训练、虚拟图书馆等；教学对象年龄呈现层次性，针对成年人和青少年设置了不同的系统版本；教学活动设计呈现创造性，提供创造工具，并且以创造物的所有权保护政策激励参与者创作。然而Second Life教育应用面临的问题包括：支持系统流畅运行的硬件配置要求高；教学应用的土地需要支付一定的费用；用户的技术认知负荷高，对掌握Second Life操作技术的需求强烈；用户的创造力不足，支持教育教学活动的资源匮乏；道德缺失与法律监管不力等。未来，Second Life教育应用的发展需要在技术方面，突破技术瓶颈，为用户构建流畅的应用体验；在用户方面，提升师生的应用技能，培养师生的创新意识，为教学提供更多的优质资源；在教学方面，关注主体的差异，为学生提供个性化的教学。

Represented by Second Life， three-dimensional virtual worlds are widely adopted， showing that such applications have special values. This paper provides a literature review to analyze the current status of educational applications of Second Life， problems that arise in its educational use， and possible trends of its future development. Educational practices of Second Life demonstrate the following characteristics: diversity of subject areas， as Second Life is widely applied in linguistics， astronomy， medicine， business， art， design， history and other subject areas. Second Life is used in various forms of teaching， including virtual classrooms， distance learning， instructional experiments， skills training， and virtual libraries. Second Life can be used to treat learners by segments， such as adult learners and younger learners. Second Life offers creative tools and encourages participants to create content， if it meets policy and copyright protection requirements. Problems faced in educational practices of Second Life include the high demand of hardware equipments which are necessary for the system to run smoothly， cost for the acquisition and maintenance of land， steep learning curve for new users， lack of creativity and educational resources and legal as well as moral liability issues. These problems should be addressed， or they could become bottlenecks for the use of Second Life. Educators should also seek to cultivate creativity of teachers and students and to provide high-quality teaching resources， and to pay attention to the individualization of learning.